Saw My First TOS episode!

I've seen all major Star Trek shows (ENT, TNG, DS9, VOY) with exception of TOS. I managed to get hold of TOS this week (Re-mastered edition) and just saw the first episode (The Cage Extended Version). I have to say, I am very impressed. To be honest, I put TOS off because it's the 60's with poor special effects etc but from what I've seen so far, it is pretty good and much better than I first thought. Are further episodes good like this?

What I don't understand is why Captain Pike is in command and I am not sure how/when Kirk comes into it. I guess I will find out soon enough.

I've seen all major Star Trek shows (ENT, TNG, DS9, VOY) with exception of TOS. I managed to get hold of TOS this week (Re-mastered edition) and just saw the first episode (The Cage Extended Version). I have to say, I am very impressed. To be honest, I put TOS off because it's the 60's with poor special effects etc but from what I've seen so far, it is pretty good and much better than I first thought. Are further episodes good like this?

What I don't understand is why Captain Pike is in command and I am not sure how/when Kirk comes into it. I guess I will find out soon enough.

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Yes, there are many more great episodes.

Kirk is not in The Cage because The Cage was the first pilot for Star Trek, filmed and used to sell the show to the network. Jeffery Hunter (Pike) was originally cast as the ship's captain. The first 'real' pilot is Where No Man Has Gone Before, with Shatner as Kirk in the role.

Most of the footage from 'The Cage' is re-used in a semi-flashback sort of episode called 'The Menagerie'.

I've seen all major Star Trek shows (ENT, TNG, DS9, VOY) with exception of TOS. I managed to get hold of TOS this week (Re-mastered edition) and just saw the first episode (The Cage Extended Version). I have to say, I am very impressed. To be honest, I put TOS off because it's the 60's with poor special effects etc but from what I've seen so far, it is pretty good and much better than I first thought. Are further episodes good like this?

What I don't understand is why Captain Pike is in command and I am not sure how/when Kirk comes into it. I guess I will find out soon enough.

Click to expand...

Yes, there are many more great episodes.

Kirk is not in The Cage because The Cage was the first pilot for Star Trek, filmed and used to sell the show to the network. Jeffery Hunter (Pike) was originally cast as the ship's captain. The first 'real' pilot is Where No Man Has Gone Before, with Shatner as Kirk in the role.

Most of the footage from 'The Cage' is re-used in a semi-flashback sort of episode called 'The Menagerie'.

Click to expand...

I'm confused, if the first official pilot was "Where no man has gone before" which is episode 1x03, what about 1x01 (The man trap) and 1x02 (Charlie-X)?? These have Shatner in them, so he was introduced BEFORE the pilot?

I've seen all major Star Trek shows (ENT, TNG, DS9, VOY) with exception of TOS. I managed to get hold of TOS this week (Re-mastered edition) and just saw the first episode (The Cage Extended Version). I have to say, I am very impressed. To be honest, I put TOS off because it's the 60's with poor special effects etc but from what I've seen so far, it is pretty good and much better than I first thought. Are further episodes good like this?

What I don't understand is why Captain Pike is in command and I am not sure how/when Kirk comes into it. I guess I will find out soon enough.

Click to expand...

Yes, there are many more great episodes.

Kirk is not in The Cage because The Cage was the first pilot for Star Trek, filmed and used to sell the show to the network. Jeffery Hunter (Pike) was originally cast as the ship's captain. The first 'real' pilot is Where No Man Has Gone Before, with Shatner as Kirk in the role.

Most of the footage from 'The Cage' is re-used in a semi-flashback sort of episode called 'The Menagerie'.

Click to expand...

I'm confused, if the first official pilot was "Where no man has gone before" which is episode 1x03, what about 1x01 (The man trap) and 1x02 (Charlie-X)?? These have Shatner in them, so he was introduced BEFORE the pilot?

For those new to the show: "The Cage" was a title retrospectively given to the first Star Trek pilot made at Desilu in 1964 and rejected by CBS (which was about to purchase Lost in Space) and by NBC. However, NBC ordered a second pilot without the Number One character (Majel Barrett). Jeffrey Hunter declined to appear again as Pike, hence Shatner as Kirk. Three scripts were offered, from which NBC chose "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (the others were "Mudd's Women" and "The Omega Glory"). This second pilot was shot in 1965 and led to the series. A number of episodes were shot before any had aired, and "Where No Man" ended up as the third episode broadcast in fall '66. (The Making of Star Trek, published in 1968 while the show was still in production, has a wealth of detail on the show's origins and early decision-making.)

I've seen all major Star Trek shows (ENT, TNG, DS9, VOY) with exception of TOS. I managed to get hold of TOS this week (Re-mastered edition) and just saw the first episode (The Cage Extended Version). I have to say, I am very impressed. To be honest, I put TOS off because it's the 60's with poor special effects etc but from what I've seen so far, it is pretty good and much better than I first thought. Are further episodes good like this?

What I don't understand is why Captain Pike is in command and I am not sure how/when Kirk comes into it. I guess I will find out soon enough.

Click to expand...

I envy you. I wish I could go back and watch all the TOS episodes for the first time again...

But yeah, you are in for a great ride. TOS is excellent, and you have many, many more classic shows to enjoy.

And just remember: "The Cage" was the rejected pilot. The official first episode wth Kirk and crew is "Where no man has gone before"

And the footage from "The Cage" (the rejected pilot episode) was later incorporated into TOS's only 2-part episode "The Menagerie"

And on the current DVD/blu-ray sets, they have the episodes in air-date order NOT production order. That's why "The Man Trap" is listed as the first episode. It was the first episode aired on TV, NOT the first episode produced...

I've seen all major Star Trek shows (ENT, TNG, DS9, VOY) with exception of TOS. I managed to get hold of TOS this week (Re-mastered edition) and just saw the first episode (The Cage Extended Version). I have to say, I am very impressed. To be honest, I put TOS off because it's the 60's with poor special effects etc but from what I've seen so far, it is pretty good and much better than I first thought. Are further episodes good like this?

What I don't understand is why Captain Pike is in command and I am not sure how/when Kirk comes into it. I guess I will find out soon enough.

Click to expand...

When I first watched TOS, I started watching TOS with The Man Trap, which was OK and I liked it enough, but then I decided to switch to the production order and watched The Cage - and it really blew me away. Great episode. But apparently the TV station at the time rejected it as "too cerebral". Go figure.

I can see why Roddenberry wanted to sneak The Cage back into the show somehow - it's too good a story to keep the viewers from seeing - so that's how Menagerie came about. Menagerie is practically a sequel to The Cage. It's a two-parter, and the first part deals with the framing story exclusively; in the second part, they incorporated most of the stuff from the unaired pilot, The Cage - you'll see how, and what a clever way they came up with to have Pike in it even though Jeffrey Hunter did not want to play the role anymore. When you've already seen The Cage, Menagerie part 2 can be a little boring as its feels like a clip show, but the ending is very different and wraps things up very nicely.

Wouldn't that make "The Man Trap" the pilot? Usually the pilot is the first episode.

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A pilot is made to sell a series to the network, but doesn't always end up being aired first. See what happened with Firefly on the Fox network a few years back as an example: network didn't like the pilot Wheedon submitted, so The Train Job was written and aired first. The actual pilot episode for the series ended up being the last episode that Fox aired.

I'm confused, if the first official pilot was "Where no man has gone before" which is episode 1x03, what about 1x01 (The man trap) and 1x02 (Charlie-X)?? These have Shatner in them, so he was introduced BEFORE the pilot?

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These are the numbers following air-date order, not production order. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the 2nd produced (counting "The Cage" as the first), "The Man Trap" was the 6th, "Charlie X" was the 8th. The network or the studio often shuffles episodes around to give a balance to the variety of stories on a particular series (at least that's the theory; sometimes it just leads to viewer confusion as in the Firefly example above).

If your inclined, do yourself a favor and watch the first 12 episodes in Production order, and NOT broadcast order, as for the first half season they had a lot of small internal continuity nods. For example The Corbomite Manuever (which IMO is the best Star Trek episode made because it really captures the essence of what 'Star Trek' was abount in 55 minutes (YMMV ) was the first episode filmed after teh pilot, but was the 10th episode aired because of all the SFX shots required for it).

"The Corbomite Maneuver" has its longueurs, but it's certainly as crucial an episode as represented above - the very first McCoy-Kirk-Spock interactions ever put to film. Plus some delightful dialogue, such as when Kirk gets to be outraged when presented with a salad; my preteen daughters aren't such big fans, but nonetheless we can always crack each other up at dinner by saying "Green leaves?" (At an early age they both recognized the puppet in this episode from the final image in the 2nd-season end credits: "the red-and-green man!")

Wouldn't that make "The Man Trap" the pilot? Usually the pilot is the first episode.

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The production pilot is generally the sample episode which sets up the premise, or shows the networks an example of the series format. These episodes may or may not be aired first, depending on the network and the series. If the entire premise is set up in the pilot, then it (or a re-edited version of it) is aired first in the run. However, if the episode can essentially be shown anywhere, a "stronger" episode may be aired first. This is called the "broadcast pilot." For example, the series "I Spy" began its run with "So Long Patrick Henry" (an amazing episode written by star Robert Culp). However, the series pilot was actually "Affair in T'Sien Cha" which was a bland entry aired 14th, between Christmas and New Years, a graveyard for new programming, and a relatively harmless place to stick crappy episodes.

The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before are series pilots.
The Man Trap would be considered the broadcast pilot, although I'd it "the premiere".

In the late 90's I was bored and nothing was on TV that I liked. Since I am a sci-fi fan and BBC 2 was showing an episode of TNG, I decided to watch it. The next few days I found myself watching more TNG but at this point I didn't care if I missed it. A few weeks after, I found myself setting my alarm to watch it, and was hooked. I was confused though, what was that blurred face man (Odo) doing on TNG? why were the uniforms different? and why was Dr Crusher replaced with a man (Bashir)? Of course, it was DS9... I didn't understand at the time that there were different shows of Star Trek, I just assumed it was all 1 show. I didn't care for DS9 though so never bothered to watch it. It just seemed wrong. After I've seen many TNG episodes, I started watching VOY and loved it. I then made it my goal to get into DS9 which I did and also loved it. Of course, being a Trek fan, I watched ENT too which I found good but not great. So yes, I've been a fan for over 10 years.

However, NBC ordered a second pilot without the Number One character (Majel Barrett). Jeffrey Hunter declined to appear again as Pike, hence Shatner as Kirk.

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Why did NBC order NOT to include Majel Barrett? Is it because she is a woman? I am too young to understand the 60's view on women and race, sorry. I never liked "Number One" anyway, I felt she was emotionless and dull.

Why did Jeffery Hunter decline to appear again as Pike? I really think he was great as the role of captain. I have not seen Kirk yet so I cannot compare him to Pike so I ask how much "better" is Kirk than Pike? or are they just equal but different?

When I first watched TOS, I started watching TOS with The Man Trap, which was OK and I liked it enough, but then I decided to switch to the production order and watched The Cage - and it really blew me away. Great episode.

These are the numbers following air-date order, not production order. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the 2nd produced (counting "The Cage" as the first), "The Man Trap" was the 6th, "Charlie X" was the 8th. The network or the studio often shuffles episodes around to give a balance to the variety of stories on a particular series (at least that's the theory; sometimes it just leads to viewer confusion as in the Firefly example above).

If your inclined, do yourself a favor and watch the first 12 episodes in Production order, and NOT broadcast order, as for the first half season they had a lot of small internal continuity nods. For example The Corbomite Manuever (which IMO is the best Star Trek episode made because it really captures the essence of what 'Star Trek' was abount in 55 minutes (YMMV ) was the first episode filmed after teh pilot, but was the 10th episode aired because of all the SFX shots required for it).

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Ok, I want to watch these in the "best" order possible so need you guys to help me. It seems I should watch them in production order so could people jot down the episode names for me please? I've only seen 1 episode so far, which is "The Cage" so what comes next for the best experience?

Sorry if I did not quote you all, but I have read all your comments and really appreciate your input!

1. WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE
2. THE CORBOMITE MANUEVER
3. MUDD'S WOMEN
4. THE ENEMY WITHIN
5. THE MAN TRAP
6. THE NAKED TIME
7. CHARLIE X
8. BALANCE OF TERROR
9. WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?
10. DAGGER OF THE MIND
11. MIRI
12. THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING
13. THE GALILEO SEVEN
14. COURT-MARTIAL
15. THE MENAGERIE (1 & 2)
16. SHORE LEAVE
17. THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS
18. ARENA
19. THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR
20. TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY
21. THE RETURN OF THE ARCHONS
22. A TASTE OF ARMAGEDDON
23. SPACE SEED
24. THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
25. THE DEVIL IN THE DARK
26. ERRAND OF MERCY
27. THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER
28. OPERATION ANNIHILATE